Resources

What makes the Kroc Center a special place?

It's not the Aquatics Center, fitness equipment or even the recording studio. It's the mission! The Salvation Army is committed to providing access to resources that can transform your life. By offering a diverse spectrum of programs and services, we are setting a foundation to encourage, equip and energize our community. Our programs and services incorporate the Search Institute's 40 developmental assets to help individuals and families reach their potential and contribute to their schools and communities. Developmental assets lead to a more caring, responsible, healthy and productive lifestyle whereby communities are changed from the inside out. Establishing these assets creates a positive self-view and attracts others to lead a more enriching life.

The Kroc Center is special because it intentionally creates pathways for each person to develop purpose, hope, joy, and connectedness. Come join us!

THE 40 DEVELOPMENTAL ASSETS

The Power to Protect, Promote, and Prevent

For more than 45 years, Search Institute of Minneapolis, MN has studied adolescent development and its connection to community change. The framework of 40 Developmental Assets was first published in 1997. Rooted in the study of child and adolescent development, with additional focus on the applied literature of prevention, thriving, protective factors, and resiliency, the framework establishes a set of opportunities and experiences to support positive child and adolescent development. The model's application was crafted for all kids. Search Institute emphasized identifying a set of developmental factors that would be particularly robust in predicting healthy outcomes across gender, race/ethnicity, and family income differences.

Half of the 40 assets are external assets, which focus on the support young people get from the people in their lives, including a sense of being valued, clearly defined boundaries, high expectations, and opportunities to participate in structured activities. The other half are internal assets, which focus on young people’s commitment to learning, their sense of self-worth, their positive values, and the skills they possess to make good life choices.

Researchers at Search Institute sought to identify and name the “building blocks” of development that not only have scientific credibility but would also resonate across gender, race/ethnicity, and political and religious affiliations. In field-testing the framework, Search Institute looked for language that unified communities, creating a sense of common good around which people could rally. The framework goes beyond naming what all children need to grow up happy and healthy in that it also describes a set of factors likely to unite, energize, and mobilize communities around preventing risky behaviors as well as promoting positive ones.

Fast Facts about Developmental Assets:

Young people with more assets are less likely to engage in risk-taking behaviors. Young people with ten or fewer assets say they are involved in an average of about 3.9 high risk behaviors. Young people with 31 assets or more report an average of less than 1 high risk behavior.

As young people’s assets increase, their positive behaviors also increase. While young people with ten or fewer assets report an average of 2.8 positive behaviors, those with 31 assets or more average 6.2 positive behaviors. This includes succeeding in school, helping others, valuing diversity, and exhibiting leadership.

The average young person surveyed has 18.6 of the 40 assets. However, levels of assets decrease for older youth. While the average student in grade six surveyed has 23 assets, the average student in grade 12 surveyed has 17.8 assets.

The 40 Developmental Assets serve as the foundational framework for all Kroc programs. Outcomes are based on building assets successfully in young people, and our evaluation plan – Getting to Outcomes, the Thrive Report – demonstrates asset building across program categories to show the performance of the Kroc Center as a whole. We believe whole-heartedly in positive, strengths-based youth development and rely upon the evidence-based strategies in the 40 Developmental Assets.

Learn more about the 40 Developmental Assets from Search Institute (Minneapolis, MN),